


Afternoon With the Moblins

by Scarlet_Claws



Series: Sunshine, Masks and Monsters [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Comedy, Cultural Differences, Friendly Moblins, Friendship, Gen, Hunters & Hunting, Light-Hearted, Moblin Mask, Monster Mask, One Shot, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-31 07:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21442117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarlet_Claws/pseuds/Scarlet_Claws
Summary: Once Link's grown used to the bokoblins, it's time to upgrade to a bigger size.
Series: Sunshine, Masks and Monsters [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1545166
Comments: 16
Kudos: 66





	Afternoon With the Moblins

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of stuff that the moblins do in here is all headcanon. Moblins aren't my favourite monsters but I still think they are cool.
> 
> You might want to read Afternoon With the Bokoblins first if you want to get all the references included in this fic. It's not necessary, but it's recommended.

Link really, really wasn’t sure about the Moblin mask. Not that it was unconvincing, in fact it was very well made. The point that made him a bit uncertain about the whole ordeal was the fact that there was a tremendous difference of height between him and a real Moblin. Stilts were not included in his disguise.

That was the reason why he hesitated for so long before using it. But he had spent the mons, and there was no point having the mask sit around in his inventory if it was to never use it. He’d rather be hit a couple of times than remain uncertain forever. He had climbed every single peak of all of Hyrule, he wasn’t going to be scared of a couple of Moblins!

Even if, having been hid by a Moblin in the past, he knew what sort of punch they could pack: the type that sent him flying back.

That’s why he carried a spear into the camp this time... the best Moblin spear he knew of, of course, one with dragon bone at the tip. Another precaution should have been to pick one with red ones instead of an all-black Moblin camp but he only thought of that too late, when he already had the mask on and was within a rock’s throw of them.

The four towering figures didn’t notice him at first, all huddled around the fire wordlessly. Compared to the loud and agitated Bokoblins, Moblins were a lot quieter and more contemplative. It went with their size, thought Link. He remembered a time where he had been a lot more terrified of them than he had ever been of bokoblins, especially after the first one he had met after his slumber had chased him around some ruins for half a day before he managed to escape. He had since then grown a lot stronger, which in term had made him more courageous, but he would never forget.

For all their slowness and their towering height, the Moblins had an acute sense of hearing. Link, cautiously approaching, didn’t make much noise, but one of them turned around with a grunt and spotted him anyway. They got up and walked to Link, so heavy that they produced light tremors with each step, and hunched over for a sniff. The others turned around to watch.

Their red eyes loomed over Link. He couldn’t move, tense, praying the Goddess that he wasn’t about to be punched in the face with the force of a full steam ahead locomotive.

“Small,” grunted the Moblin in their dialect. It was understandable for someone that spoke bokoblin, albeit a bit hard for a non-native like Link.

The others, taking the words of their leader as some sort of signal, came over to smell Link for themselves. Link, as he had been taught by Merp, sniffed them back, hoping that this was the right thing to do.

It wasn’t. The ones he tried to approach backed away while narrowing their eyes. Link stilled immediately, at loss as to what he should do, and let them smell him all they wanted.

Lonni had said that male and female Moblins probably distinguished one another by the length of their snout: males had it longer. He looked at each of them carefully and roughly estimated that he was dealing with a half-half distribution of genders and that none of them were preparing a punch for him. Maybe.

“Small,” said another. “Boko dad.”

“Spear!”

Link was suddenly lifted by the spear on his back and they all started to scream about it. The rest was confusing to him. He recognized the word dragon, although the word spear was repeated over and over again by every single one of them until it was nothing but a storm of grunts and excited hand gestures. Link was passed around as if he weighed no more than a bug, which he probably was in their eyes. He would have usually found being treated in this manner mildly offending but he was too confused for that.

“Small down!” cried their leader. He stomped on the ground until he was obeyed. The three others backed off respectively, lowering their heads.

Link knew he was the leader because he was the biggest of the group and the one with the most scars. By this logic, he also was the most terrifying. Link made sure not to move a single muscle while he was examined.

“Give name,” the leader demanded.

“Nink**,**” answered the hylian, doing his best to show no fear.

The leader stared at him wordlessly for a long time. Link felt a cold sweat break down his spine.

“Small,” finally declared the Moblin.

There were snorts from the three others. “Small,” they repeated. “Small, Small.”

“Nink,” insisted Link.

But the Moblins kept repeating “Small” over and over, along with many snorts, so Link gave up. At long as he wasn’t punched, he could accept that. He didn’t really care.

“Give name?” he asked the leader.

The leader didn’t answer himself. Instead, he crossed his arms, looking proud, and the others started to point at him.

“Korass,” they told Link. Or at least that’s what Link understood, since they kept talking all at the same time.

It seemed that Korass was the only one that was getting a special group introduction, because the three others, Bedak, Nirr, and Pagada, gave their names individually. However, they made sure that Link knew his name was Small by patting him on the head and repeating his new nickname over and over. Link should have been more offended by that but he was too surprised that they bothered touching him softly to care.

“Dragon spear,” said Nirr, one of the females, touching Link’s weapon. “Pretty. Very good weapon. You know?”

Link took it off his back so that she could have a closer look at it. The others were also interested. They wanted to touch the tip, testing the craftmanship, and nodded profusely. Link was starting to feel bad about the fact that he had stolen in from the corpse of its former owner.

“Where you had?” asked Pagada, the other female.

“Traded, for meat,” said Link. “Rare meat.”

The moblins started to snort again.

“Small talks like Boko,” said Korass. “Small lives with Boko before?”

“Yes,” said Link. It would be pointless to lie then. “But... move now. A lot.”

“Traveling Small.”

“Yes.”

“Who did the spear?” asked Pagada.

“I don’t know,” said Link.

They all looked at him strangely, then sent each other glances.

“It was friend that had a friend,” added Link quickly. “I trade, he gives me spear. I don’t know who made.”

He received several snorts in response. He would accept that, even if he didn’t know what he had said that was so funny.

Korass suddenly said a word that Link didn’t know, then spear. 

“What?”

He hit his chest once, standing very tall over Link. “I want spear. If you win, I give you meat, but if you lose you give me spear.”

Link neither wanted to get meat or give the spear. “No.”

Korass stomped his foot and repeated the word. Link, cautiously, backed off. He didn’t know what he wanted, exactly, but he was starting to wonder if he had stumbled into something that was unique to Moblins. Some sort of challenge perhaps?

He had not gone through the trouble of collecting all those mons just to get into yet another fight. He simply unhooked the spear from its strap and dropped it at Korass’ feet.

“Present,” he grunted.

The four Moblins stared at him. Had he done something wrong again?

Korass was the first to regain his footing. He picked up the spear and started to examine it carefully.

“Is it trap?” he asked Link.

“No, no trap. Present.”

Korass threw the spear ten yards. “I don’t trust present!”

Link just shrugged. A bokoblin wouldn’t have thought of it twice and they would have been right to do so. There literally was no trap. That didn’t mean he wasn’t anticipating what would happen next with a touch of fear.

Pagada, the one that had been interested in the spear since the beginning, went to fetch it.

“No,” cried Korass. “Trap!”

“I will break spear,” she said. “And learn to make special spear.”

Korass was silent for a while, staring at her. Then he stomped his foot again, said the word, and pointed at the spear. She growled at him, he growled back, then she pointed at some nearby hylian ruin.

“Roof,” she said.

All four of them started walking towards it. Link followed, wondering why were moblins so much more complicated than bokoblins. He was already missing his friends. He could be spending this afternoon with them.

He was soon to be given reasons to stay, however. Watching a moblin trying to scale a crumbling ruin was definitely not something you saw during combat, and it was easy to say why: they were terrible at it. Several times, Link gasped, thinking that one of the challengers was going to fall. There were a few dangerous slips but, in the end, they managed to be both standing on the roof, face to face.

This still didn’t look safe. 

They roared at each other and stomped several times, trying to look as intimidating as possible before they clashed into each other. If Link had been impressed by the way they fought him, he was double impressed by the way they fought each other. They needed no weapon or armour, only brute strength. They grabbed each other and wrestled. The aim seemed to be to trip their opponent over the edge with many grunts and growls.

Link cringed. Every time he thought it couldn’t get worse, they found a way to make it look even more dangerous. It was to the point where he didn’t know if they were fearless or just plain short-sighted.

It was Pagada that lost. She fell over the edge from a vicious trip, missing landing on her head by a breath. Link gasped and almost rushed to her side but she got up. The only damage she had taken were a few scratches on her forearms, and even those would have been worth if they would have been wrapped in old cloth.

Korass stomped and roared in triumph. One second later he was tumbling down as well because he had not looked at where he was stomping. The three others snorted loudly at him so Link felt free to join in.

“No laughing!” he bellowed as he hopped to his feet. “I won! I have the spear now.”

Begrudgingly, Pagada gave up her prize. Korass posed with it and the two others clapped politely. Link followed the loser to the fire, feeling for her. Out of the four, she was the one that was the most sympathetic to him.

“I can get other spear,” he said. “New spear. Lots of spears in Hyrule.”

“No present for losers,” she said. But she did tap him lightly on the head, which Link took as a sign that she wasn’t upset about losing.

Maybe hanging out with moblins wasn’t so bad.

“Pagada!” cried Korass.

She stood up from her place at the fire.

“Here!” he gave her the spear. “You can break spear, and learn to make special spear. Then everyone has spear!”

The two others cheered. Pagada snorted and nodded.

“Remember. My spear,” said Korass.

“Yes.” Pagada snorted again. “Korass spear. I break.”

“Yes.”

They all sat by the fire again, but this time Link was among them. He didn’t know how accepted that made him, but he was glad that he was at least tolerated.

Nirr turned to him. “How did Boko dad put you in Mob mom belly?” she asked.

It took a while for Link to understand what she meant because of course she knew how babies were made. (Did she?) Considering that they seemed to think that he was some sort of bokoblin and moblin hybrid, it made sense to ask how his parents had come to... well.

“He sang a lot of songs.” That’s what Bork had done for Merp. “And he brought her flowers.”

There was a round of snorts.

“Flowers are sneeze,” said Nirr.

“Do you like flowers, Padaga?” asked Bedak, hopeful.

“No.”

Bedak hung his head low and returned to giving Padaga side glances when she wasn’t looking.

“They were rare flowers,” explained Link. “Very high. Mountain flower.”

“Mob only like strong mate,” yelled Korass. “Flowers are stupid plant! Yuk! Can’t eat.”

“But rare flower very hard to have,” said Link. “Boko dad strong for Boko, show Mob he very strong.” He paused. “And he knew many songs.” 

There was a silence around the fire.

And then, of course, Korass jumped to his feet. “I know _more_ songs!” he claimed.

He looked at Link.

The hylian sighed. “Yes,” he said.

They all cheered Korass for knowing more songs than Link’s imaginary Boko dad. The hylian just smiled.

There was a silence in the conversation after that. Link decided that it was his turn to ask questions.

“Are there other Mobs around here?”

“Yes,” said Nirr. “Down the road, a group live in a ruin. They have Boko with them too.”

“But their...” Korass said a word Link didn’t know, “is not strong.”

“Their what?” asked Link.

Korass repeated the word, as if that was going to make Link understand it. Something about blood?

“It’s when the parents of the Mobs have parents,” explained Pagada, “that have parents, that have parents.”

Oh. A _bloodline_. Did moblins care about bloodlines? Link would have never thought that those were the sort of things they thought about from just looking at them... but to be frank, their face didn’t show a lot of emotion most of the time. Or maybe he didn’t know how to read them.

“Bloodline here is strong.” Korass gestured to all of the moblins gathered around the fire. “Very strong. We have heros in our bloodline. We honour them when we become stronger. That is why we fight.”

“Fight what?”

“Anything. We fight anything.”

“Once I fought a Rock Person,” said Bedak. “I broke my bat but I won, he ran away.”

“Once there was a tall lady—”

“Nirr,” growled Korass, interrupting her.

There was a silence around the fire.

“What lady?” asked Link.

“We do not talk about the lady,” said Pagada.

“Oh.”

Link thought about another question to change the subject.

“Do I have a strong bloodline if I am half Boko?”

“No,” they all said at the same time.

Link shrugged. He didn’t remember if he did but that didn’t really matter. He knew that his worth was not determined by who were his parents.

“You can work hard to create one,” said Pagada. “You can be the first of a bloodline. You are a mob too.”

Korass snorted. “Small can’t be hero. Small is small.”

“What about smart?”

“Smart is good for lizarlfos. Best way to defeat enemy is with strength.”

“Best way,” said Bedak.

“Best way,” said Nirr.

“Smart is good sometimes,” argued Pagada.

“Smart is good,” agreed Korass, “when making a camp.”

They seemed to have come to some sort of conclusion after that. Even if Link wanted to argue that this wasn’t it, he didn’t want to and he didn’t have the vocabulary, so he left it at that.

They stared at the fire until Nirr said that she was hungry. Korass jumped to his feet and said that it was time to hunt for something to eat and the group agreed, so they made their way to the nearby forest. Link was invited to join, of course.

Hunting with moblins was more complex that Link had thought it to be. They certainly didn’t have the speed needed to chase down a boar or a deer, so they cooperated. And they were rather good at it. If one stood still, the animal they were chasing could mistake them for a tree and run right into their arms. And the moment they were within reach...

Link did his part. He discreetly pulled out a bow and shot a deer in the head. When he brought it back, he was patted on the head many times as they congratulated him. Even Korass declared that this was more than what he had expected of Small, which was probably his idea of a compliment. Link thanked them.

But he was glad to be finally able to sit down around the fire again that evening. Because they had quickly discovered how fast Link could run, he had been asked to assigned to the role of the one that chased the most. His legs ached.

“Tonight, we feast!” declared Korass.

There was a cheer.

But, unlike the bokoblins, moblins didn’t see like they just tossed their meat in the fire and called it cooked when it was well burned. First, they gathered large korok leaves and certain herbs, then skinned their prey before wrapping them. They then tossed their preparations in a pit, buried them and lit a roaring fire on it. Link observed the process with interest. He had no idea moblins cooked different from bokoblins but he thought it to be very interesting.

“Why do you travel?” asked Pagada as they were waiting for the food to be ready. She was already picking apart the different parts of the spear Link had brought along.

Link shrugged. “I want to see everything.”

“Everything is a lot.”

She asked about it and Link told her about it to the best of his abilities. He talked about the high, cold peaks and the steamy hot volcano. She was surprised to hear about the ocean, she said that she had never imagined water going on forever. She then commented that there were probably lizalfos that lived very happily at the ocean because of how much they loved water.

Their talk was broken when Korass and Borak got into a fight, for a reason that Link didn’t understand – nothing of importance, told him Nirr when he asked her. They screamed a lot, stomped their feet, and eventually started to fight. They didn’t move to the old ruin, thank the Goddess, and wrestled right there in the grass with one another. It ended with Korass coming on top, roaring.

Link came closer, eager to see what it was about. They had already both forgotten the reason for their quarrel.

“We are friends,” said Bedak.

Link told a few anecdotes of his travels. He was talking about how wolves had come after him while he was travelling on a grassy plain, and how he took each of them down with his bow, when he was interrupted.

“Where is your bow?” asked Pagada.

“Lost it.”

“No, you didn’t,” she said. “The deer had a bow wound. You brought it back. I saw.”

Link became quiet. He was stuck. He didn’t want to pull out his Sheika slate in front of them. It was obvious that they were a lot less naive than bokoblins: They wouldn’t accept that he had one because he just so happen to be a little strange in general.

“I left it in the woods,” he said.

Pagada grabbed Korass by the horn and shook it, making the leader of the moblins grunt in discomfort.

“What did I do!” he cried.

“You scared him!” she answered. “He didn’t want to show the bow because you scared him! He thought you wanted the bow!”

“I don’t like the bow!” protested Korass. “You like bow.”

“I don’t fight people for the bow.” 

“I don’t fight _that_ much,” said Korass.

Pagada shook her head and sighed.

“Hey,” protested Korass. “Meblin fights more than me. I only fight when I need!”

“I can go get the bow,” said Link. He didn’t want them to fight because of him.

“I don’t care for the bow,” told him Korass.

“Can you shoot it?” asked Nirr. “Are you good?”

Link nodded. He was fairly good at it, he supposed.

“Please show!” she said.

So Link went in the woods, summoned his arrows and his bow, and came back to the camp. The moblins, eager to see his prowess, gathered around him as he shot an apple off a tree from quite a distance.

This earned him some cheers and encouragements, and they all laughed when Nirr called the apple a “water rock only Bokos can eat.” Link, playfully, tossed the apple at her shoulder, saying that rocks were made for throwing. She snorted and went to pick up a bolder with a single hand

There were many snorts from the others as Link ran away from Nirr. She was laughing, and Link wanted to believe that she wouldn’t really hit him with it, but he would rather not risk it. She told him afterwards that she would have never.

The meat was declared cooked when the fire died out. By that time, the sun had set and the stars were starting to show. They dug out their catches and each were given their share. Link had to admit: it smelled absolutely delicious.

However, he regretted biting into his part unprepared: the herbs they had cooked with were very, very spicy, and he had just chomped on a mouthful of them. Seeing him huff and puff from the heat made the moblins laugh as if that was the funniest thing they had seen all day.

“Spice makes mob mouth strong!” said Korass.

Of course they thought it did.

Luckily the herbs only influenced the meat superficially. If Link took careful bites and drank enough water, he could break through to the bits that were really tasty. The cooking at the pit had made the animal flesh tender, almost falling from the bone. Link ate until he was full and “more than what a Small should” according to Bedak.

“Have you seen...” Bedak scratched his head, looking for the word. “Hyrule castle? Ganon.”

“Yes.”

“How he look?”

“Big. Very very big.” Link waved around the meat he had been eating. “Blacker than the night. Two eyes, like stars. He screams.”

They nodded, listening eagerly.

“Sometimes, I see Ganon in dream,” said Nirr. “I saw Ganon in dream when we became black.”

“One day, I will be silver,” said Korass. “Because I have strong bloodline.”

“Ganon makes us strong,” said Pagada, “but he takes away the children.”

Link tilted his head, confused. “The Mob children?”

“You know? They are no calves since... many, many years.” She seemed sad. “I try. I have none. Small reminds me of a calf sometimes, but Small is no calf.” She patted him on the head.

“Why?” asked Link.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. But Ganon makes all the dead Mob come back. Always the same Mob. Sometimes they come back stronger, when they live a brave death.”

“We are all very brave,” said Korass.

“Yes,” said Nirr. “That’s why we are black.”

“I prefer calf,” said Pagada. “I miss seeing them.”

“I want calf too,” said Bedak while staring directly at Pagada. She didn’t notice.

That made Link think. He had always assumed that monsters were at their strongest and happiest because Ganon ruled over them. He was surprised that they didn’t all seem to think that way – or at least they didn’t all think that their situation was the best it could be.

They insisted for him to stay the night.

“We have good grass bed,” said Korass himself.

“I like seeing the stars,” said Link. “And I can use roads. Hylians sleep at night.”

“Roads are for weak!” declared Korass.

“I’m weak.”

“No no,” said Nirr. “You are strong. With bow, you can hit far. In eye. Once, I was hit in eye by the tall lady—”

“Nirr!” interrupted Korass. He stood up and stomp his foot. “No talking about the tall lady! It’s the rule!”

“Sorry.”

“I’ll be going,” said Link.

They saw that there was no stopping him, so they wished their best on his way, patting him on the head and shoving him playfully. They shared some of the leftovers from their meal with him, insisting that he took as much as he could comfortably carry. Link promised he would come again and bring another spear if he found one. He fully intended to hold this promise, too.


End file.
